Presidential Search Committee Not Yet Finalized

Yeshiva Board Excises Unanimity Clause Annulling RIETS Veto Power

Following the unexpected March 13th announcement of Yeshiva President Norman Lamm's plans to retire, the University's Board of Trustees has been charged with constructing a search process through which a successor will be secured. While Board spokesmen continue to assert the preliminary nature of this formulation, concern from within the Yeshiva community stems from the few concrete steps that have already been taken by the Board.

The Amendment

Commentator sources have revealed that the very day of Lamm's announcement, a series of amendments to the Board's by-laws was introduced; significantly, buried on page seven of the nine-page packet, lay a proposed change to the then "existing [Presidential] election and removal provisions" that required "the unanimous recommendation of the [Board's] Executive Committee members then in office" to confirm the appointment of a new President. The amendment, which was voted upon and passed just hours before Lamm's announcement, changed the requirement of a unanimous recommendation to one of "eighty percent of the Executive Committee then in office." The timing of the proposal and subsequent passage of the amendment suggest Board foreknowledge of the Lamm announcement. More importantly, however, the move leaves members of the fifteen-member Executive Committee without veto power over presidential candidates.

Board members point to the practical problems posed by a unanimity requirement as the impetus behind the change. One member deemed the original by-laws simply "not feasible. Anyone, for ornery or any reason, can be vetoed until we end up with a situation where we don't have a president."

Nonetheless, numerous high-level members of the Yeshiva community see the change as disturbing, in light of the stated purpose of the original clause. "Dr. Lamm had always pointed to the existence of the clause as a firewall that was aimed at ensuring that RIETS had some ultimate authority in selecting the next President," explained one Commentator source. The "firewall," as insiders recall it having been termed on more than one occasion, functioned by virtue of the seat held by "the Chairman of the Board of Trustees of Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminar" on the powerful Executive Committee, which ensured RIETS veto power of any given candidate. The passing of the amendment marks the disappearance of the highly touted firewall and consequently raises significant concern from many who remain unconvinced that the Board's wishes will necessarily echo popular Orthodox sentiment.

Even recently elected Chairman of RIETS Board Julius Berman admitted that he "fully appreciate[s] and understand[s] why it is necessary to amend the provision which allows any one of the fifteen members of the Executive Committee for whatever reason, or no reason, to veto the selection of the President." He pointed out that the eighty-percent requirement remains a "supermajority," asserting his belief that a unanimous decision will still be targeted and in all probability secured.

The Search Process

As the Board prepares to divulge the intricacies of the search process, some demonstrators have questioned the mere existence of a gap of time between the announcement of Lamm's upcoming retirement and the specifics of the search process. One administrator went as far as to say, "They should have been announced on the same night together."

Commentator sources have learned that the delay might be the product of internal dissent within the ranks of the Board over the exact role that it will play in selecting a presidential candidate. Newly elected Board Chairman Robert M. Beren has selected Michael Jesselson to serve as head of its steering committee, a subset of the Board of Trustees that will be charged with overseeing the presidential search process; what remains unclear is how active a role this subcommittee of the Board will assume. The very selection of a Board steering committee disturbs some who cite the move as evidence that the Board might be contemplating a clear deviation from the process employed in the 1976 presidential search, a time during which the Board of Trustees allowed a broad spectrum of voices to run the successful process that concluded with the hiring of Lamm. "The Yeshiva does not belong to the Board, it belongs to the Orthodox community," exclaimed one administrator who attempted to speculate on the significance of independent Board moves so early in the process.

In 1976, the search committee was comprised of some fifty members, selected to represent the Modern Orthodox community at large. The committee included representatives from Yeshiva's student body, alumni, administration, and faculty, coupled with influential communal leaders, including members of the RCA and the Orthodox Union. "Back then we conducted a genuine communal search," recalled a member of the '76 search committee. The member expressed his hope that Beren model this process after that extremely successful one, but tempered his optimism by pointing to a very active 2001 Board that might overlook the need to involve the broader community at the highest levels of the selection process. "As well-intentioned as the Board may be," remarked one student activist, "it [the Board] is not representative of the general community in its composition." Citing Beren's status as a Harvard alum, some close with Beren have speculated that he might model the Yeshiva search process after Harvard's. Despite the absence of a clear description of the search process, insiders have learned that a committee similar to the fifty-member community panel of '76 is going to play some role in the process. The search body will also include a minimum of one student representative from each of the schools. What role the body will play, however, depends upon the degree to which the Board operates in its search independently from this body.

The Candidates

Ever since the enumeration of candidates the day following Lamm's announcement in the special edition of The Commentator, Yeshiva discourse has been dominated by talk of potential successors to Lamm. Yonatan Kaganoff, an interested RIETS student, purchased yupresident.com and constructed a poll on which interested parties could "vote for their pick for president." Site managers have released the results to The Commentator to be publicized for the first time.

Tallies reveal that Rabbi Dr. J.J. Schacter garnered almost one-quarter of the votes, leading all candidates. In a close second stood the deadlocked duo of Rabbi Dr. David Berger and Rabbi Dr. Jonathan Sacks, and behind them Rabbi Dr. Ephraim Kanarfogel, Rabbi Jonathan Rosenblatt, and dark horse candidate Rabbi Dr. Michael Rosensweig. As the Yeshiva community awaits forthcoming announcements from the Yeshiva Board about the hiring process, the Modern Orthodox community sits back, realizing that much of its direction will also be formed in the upcoming months.